Since the July day he signed a free-agent contract with the New Orleans Pelicans, the message to guard Jimmer Fredette from the team’s coaching staff has been exceedingly simple: When you get a good look at the basket, don’t hesitate. For an elite perimeter shooter such as Fredette, who has connected on 40.1 percent of his career three-point attempts in the NBA, those instructions should sound like music to the ears.
Fredette: “Every single day, (Monty Williams) and the coaches say ‘Hey, if you have an open shot, make sure to shoot it. Don’t pass it up – shoot it. That’s what we brought you here for, to shoot the basketball and score for us.’ ”
After a standout college career at Brigham Young University that sparked rampant fandom known as “JimmerMania” – partly due to Fredette’s accuracy from well beyond the NCAA three-point arc – he was picked 10th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft. However, over the past three seasons, his opportunities to play have been sporadic, with his role fluctuating between backup minutes and being left entirely out of the rotation. The 6-foot-2, 195-pounder has also already had four different head coaches in his brief NBA tenure (Williams will be his fifth). Fredette’s entrance to the pros could not have been more tumultuous – his rookie year coincided with the ’11 lockout; his first NBA head coach, Paul Westphal, was fired by the Sacramento Kings a mere seven games into the ’11-12 season.
Fredette has received double-digit DNPs due to coach’s decision in each of the past two seasons, after he intermittently started a total of seven games as a Sacramento rookie. Despite the constant questions related to his role, he’s been a progressively improved three-point shooter each season, including making a career-best 47.6 percent in ’13-14. As a result of averaging just 14.6 minutes in his total of 179 NBA appearances, Fredette does not have enough three-pointers to qualify for the statistical category, but according to Basketball-Reference.com, his 40.1 career percentage would rank him 35th all-time and 16th among active players.
“I’ve had opportunities to go out and play, but sometimes I haven’t,” the 25-year-old said of his NBA career. “It’s been a mixture of both. I haven’t been able to get consistent minutes at any place yet, so I’m excited to hopefully be able to do that here. It’s all about working hard, keeping your head down and just pushing forward and not worrying about what happened in the past. So I’m excited to get a fresh start, and hopefully I’ll be able to get some good minutes here and be able to help this team.”
Prior to last season, Sacramento chose not to pick up Fredette’s fourth-year option, which meant he would become a free agent for the first time in the summer of 2014. The Kings waived him midway through '13-14; Chicago promptly signed him, but Fredette played even less on a Bulls team that already had a consistent player rotation and was headed to another Eastern Conference playoff berth. Although Fredette was on the roster, he did not appear in a postseason game, which would have marked his playoff debut.
Given the chance in 2014 unrestricted free agency to choose his NBA destination for the first time, Fredette opted for the Pelicans at least partly due to their need for his skill set. Earlier in free agency, New Orleans lost one of the NBA’s premier three-point shooters, Anthony Morrow (42.8 percent career on three-pointers, third among all active players).
“It’s nice that they wanted (me) here,” Fredette said of the Pelicans’ interest in signing him. “They reached out to want me to be on the team. Obviously they definitely had interest and think that I can help them. That’s great to feel for me… I’m excited to be able to come in to this organization and be able to help out in whatever way that I can. I’m just excited to get the season started, and it’s almost here now. We’re revving up and getting ready to go. Everybody’s back. I’m very excited for this new start.”